What moves Chemnitz citizens
NUMIC summarises experiences of participatory mobility planning in a handbook
Since September 2019, the research project NUMIC - New Urban Mobility Awareness in Chemnitz - has focused on the mobility behaviour of Chemnitz residents. The city of Chemnitz led an interdisciplinary research consortium consisting of Chemnitz University of Technology, TU Dresden, Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart and Innosabi GmbH. Shortly before the end of the project, the results have now been summarised in a handbook.
Handbook summarises findings
In the "Handbook for Participatory Mobility Planning - What Moves Citizens", the project team summarises the findings and, above all, the experience gained. In addition to general insights into the course of the project, the handbook also offers a look behind the scenes. Readers learn more about the background to decisions and gain insights into the research results. As a handbook, the publication also offers a large number of recommendations for action, for example for local authorities. After all, only needs-based mobility planning can be successful and participatory and co-creative planning processes are likely to become increasingly important.
Chemnitz residents involved in the project right from the start
The project was based on a co-creative and participatory approach to the question of how more sustainable mobility can be promoted and anchored in the everyday lives of citizens. Accordingly, the people of Chemnitz were actively involved from the very early stages of the project. A model route was chosen based on a pre-selection of possible routes. The winning route was a connection between the Sportforum and the Zeisigwald forest, which was later named NUMICO. All subsequent activities such as inspections, design competitions and urban development measures were based on this route.
One year of real-world laboratory
The model route served the research group as a real-life laboratory for a year and was even nominated by the
even nominated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection for the Reallabore 2022 innovation award. During this time, various participation formats and urban planning measures were implemented and analysed. Both on the associated numic.city platform and in analogue space, Chemnitz residents were asked about their mobility behaviour, were able to give feedback in a specially developed app or participate in the construction and design of two parklets. Due to the pandemic, the focus was primarily on online formats. On numic.city
almost 500 Chemnitz residents participated directly in the design of the model route. In addition to the nationwide recommendations for action and the tangible measures along NUMICO, internal administrative findings were also collected. This concerns, for example, hurdles in the road traffic regulations and practical knowledge on participation in planning.
The detailed results can be found in the handbook "What moves citizens". The handbook is available to download online as a PDF at https://doi.org/10.24406/publica-140 or at numic.city.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).